Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The question is. Does it fit?

And the answer is no. Had a setback on the chopper today. My combination of mid 90's fork slider and brake caliper does not cooperate with my 2005 wheel. I am now in search of a 2000-2007 four piston front brake caliper and a 2000-2003 left side 39mm fork slider with 3/4" axle. Gonna have to sell some parts I don't need because I am out of money.

My only other option is to machine the hub on the rotor mounting surface down about 1/4" to move the rotor in, farther away from the fork slider. The problem is the inboard brake pad holder that fits between the rotor and the fork slider is a press fit and will not allow the wheel to spin. I do not have a mill accurate enough to machine it down. I am going to measure it tomarrow and talk to Joe Bell and see if such an operation is possible. He did a really nice job boring the 1.5" hole through the center of my exhaust tip when I couldn't do that on the Smithy.

It's the end of March and I don't have a running motorcycle. This really bothers me. I'm putting the new starter in my Sportstertomorrow and doing a compression test to see just how bad my top end is. It's making noises I don't like but they are not I'm about to explode noises. I hope the Sportster hangs in there long enough for me to get the Chopper running. Then I can put some high compression pistons in it.